Urban Meyer’s Florida and Ohio State teams were filled with elite talent. Five-star gems like DL Carlos Dunlap, DB Joe Haden, QB Tim Tebow, and WR Percy Harvin were all under his tutelage. However, during his SEC run, Meyer could not figure out the hotbed of high school excellence: Louisiana. At least, not in the way Nick Saban did.

“When I was the head coach at Florida, we played around at Louisiana, and we got to the dance floor with a great player, and he wouldn’t come,” Meyer revealed on The Triple Option while discussing Ed Orgeron’s recruiting brilliance. “So I said, ‘Enough, I’m not flying into Louisiana again. I’m good.’ There’s enough good players around Georgia and Florida that I’m not gonna go beat my face against the wall and go to Louisiana.

“Now, I know Nick Saban went in there and got some players, but that was a whole different level of game that I was not willing to go do.”

In states like Florida, you have multiple programs competing for the same players. Miami is always in the mix, and the same goes for the Gators and the Noles. But in Louisiana, there is only one program to root for and high school prospects dream of getting into: LSU. And forget in-state talent, the Tigers even got the better of the Gators for a Florida prospect when it snatched CB Patrick Peterson of the 2008 class right before signing day. But that wasn’t the case for Nick Saban.

Saban coached the Tigers from 2000 to 2004, leading LSU to their first national title since 1958 in his third year there and two SEC titles. So when Saban returned to CFB in 2007 following his NFL coaching stint to take the head coaching job at Alabama, he used that old connection to break LSU’s local dominance and bring in talents to Tuscaloosa. In 2018, the Bama roster had 11 players from Louisiana.

Such was Saban’s recruiting prowess that the Tide fans began calling it the ‘Bayou-to-Bama’ pipeline. Funnily enough, Saban was doing it even when Ed Orgeron was the head coach of LSU.

DeVonta Smith left Louisiana to become one of the most decorated players in college football history, eventually winning the 2020 Heisman Trophy and catching the game-winning touchdown in the 2017 National Championship.

Landon Collins had a massive recruiting battle where the Safety famously committed to Alabama on national television during the Under Armour All-America Game. This even visibly upset his own mother, who wanted him to stay home at LSU.

Dylan Moses was another heavily publicized prodigy from LSU’s backyard who had originally committed to the Tigers at age 15 before Saban flipped him to join the Crimson Tide.

Meyer’s blacklisting of Louisiana continued even when he was coaching the Buckeyes. However, his successor at Columbus finally conquered the state that Meyer couldn’t. Ryan Day’s Buckeyes landed five-star safety Blaine Bradford and three-star DL Darryus McKinley for their 2026 class despite a heavy push from in-state LSU.

Urban Meyer’s revelation explains LSU’s move for Orgeron

After LSU hired Lane Kiffin, the new head coach brought in former LSU head coach Ed Orgeron. The Tigers’ head coach has a prior connection with Orgeron, but that wasn’t the only reason to bring back Coach-O. He chose the latter for his recruiting capability. Being a Louisiana native, Ed Orgeron has ties with the state like no other. It’s already paying dividends for LSU.

The No. 1 WR in the country, Easton Royal, who is committed to Texas, is one of LSU’s elite targets. Lane Kiffin pushed hard for a possible flip to stay home. Then, the nation’s No. 1 DL recruit, Jalen Brewster, showed a positive reaction to LSU after his official visit.

“It was great. I loved spending time with Coach Kiffin,” said Brewster. “Coach Kiffin is a real great guy, and I would love to play for him. They took a very big step.”

Orgeron played a huge role in attracting this talent. However, unlike Meyer, in the modern era of NIL, out-of-state powerhouses like Texas A&M, Florida, Alabama, and Georgia are also trying to secure these talents.